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And because of a little unexpected perk Canada’s Patrick Chan has enjoyed since arriving here to chase Olympic gold, his chances for success may have improved even more.

Yes, the king had a palace all to himself for his first couple of pre-Games practice sessions, that being the Iceberg Skating Palace, where next week the Toronto native will attempt to become the first Canadian male to triumph at the Olympics.

Upon his arrival in Russia late last week, Chan was surprised to find that there were no other competitors skating over the Olympic rings at the rink, allowing him the rare luxury of practising by himself, an added boost to the confidence he has in living up to his favoured status.

“Coming in those two or three days earlier than everyone else was a huge advantage,” Chan said Tuesday at a Canadian team press conference. “I can now calmly go through my routine.

“In my whole career, I haven’t had a practice on my own. (And now) it comes down to the Olympics. Who would have imagined?”

Calm will be key for Chan, who was disappointed in his fifth-place finish four years ago in Vancouver, a result not helped by the fact that he was just 19 years old at the time.

But during his time on the ice at one of the jewels in the coastal cluster of venues not far from the shores of the Black Sea, Chan has fine-tuned his preparations in relative peace, a luxury that won’t be available in the days immediately prior to the competition.

“Figure skating is a performing sport so you look around at the surroundings a lot,” the three-time world champion and perhaps Canada’s highest-profile gold-medal hope said. “Depending on how the atmosphere feels to you, it can affect the way you perform your programs.

“The first day was pretty startling. Different lights. Different boards and the sizing of the rink is different. All those factors play a different role.

“I’ll be honest: The first two days were rough and finally the third day I was able to get my feet under me and feel at home.”

As for the pressure of delivering where so many great Canadian skaters before him have failed, Chan doesn’t seem to be burdened by the challenge and rather is trying to embrace those expectations.

“I trained and prepared myself to win a gold medal, but in order to get to that step, I have to first do what I have to on the ice and that’s skate and train every day to skate a flawless program,” Chan said. “People say there is a curse that world champions won’t win Olympic gold medals. At the end of the day we are all different.”

While Chan is the clear favourite, there are always challengers in one of the highest-profile events of the Games. For the Sochi competition, the men’s event is even thicker in intrigue after 2006 Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko was a controversial selection to the host Russian team after losing in his country’s national championship.

Plushenko, who captured silver in Vancouver, will be the obvious Prince Charming on the two nights he skates at the Palace.

“Plushenko is the talk of the town,” Chan said. “It’s exciting, it’s drama filled. I take my hat off to him. I would be very distracted having to deal with the controversies and having to compete in my own country.”

Chan certainly knows what that’s all about, but figures his experience over the past four years have him better situated to compete than in Vancouver, where he was fifth in his lone Olympic experience.

“Vancouver was a lot of pressure,” Chan said. “I was young, I was 19 and I was like ‘Yeah, I’m going to win a medal and how cool is it going to be to stand on a podium in Canada.’

“So sure, I put a lot of pressure on myself, but I realize that at the end of the day, it’s for myself. What I do want is to leave here with is the feeling of a great skate, finally where I want it to be.”

NEW TEAM EVENT COULD HELP CHAN

No pressure, Patrick.

But if the world champion figure skater is able to win gold in the men’s competition here and lead his team to the same medal in the new team event, he will help make Canada arguably the most accomplished Olympic nation in the sport.

Canadian skaters have captured gold in three of the five current events, one of five countries to accomplish that feat. One of the big holes, of course, is the men’s event, where the best result has been a pair of silvers from Brian Orser and Elvis Stojko.

Chan is hoping the debut of the team competition at the Sochi Games may also help fend off some of the burden that goes with his position.

“Imagine if we could get a medal before our individual event and how much relief and excitement and motivation that will bring to us,” Chan said of the event, which gets under way Thursday.

“It’s a great chance to break the ice for the team and get the whole team going and motivated and not have to carry the weight of getting a medal for Canada. I don’t have to carry it all by myself right off the bat.”

Canadian skater Patrick Chan 'prepared' to win gold in Sochi

He is the reigning world champion and perhaps Canada’s leading gold medal hope here, so is Patrick Chan feeling the pressure?

If he is, the Toronto native isn’t showing it.

After a handful of practice sessions at the Iceberg Skating Palace - many of them when he was the lone skater on the ice - Chan sounded calm and confident on Tuesday morning. He is heavily favoured to triumph in the men’s competition next week but is trying to embrace the expectations that go with that status.